Aboard GSO, Spring 2022
The transition from spring to summer is bittersweet on URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus. Late spring is when we part with our new graduates (27 in 2022) who, after several years of working side-by-side with peers and mentors, have become family. But summer is also when we welcome new students from across the globe. Fellows and interns arrive, and just as they are excited to embark on new adventures working with our outstanding faculty and researchers, we are excited to work with them. Soon new graduate students will arrive to begin their voyage this fall on the shores of Narragansett Bay.
With each issue of Aboard GSO, we’re proud to bring you compelling stories, and offer enlightening, inspiring and even surprising experiences, tales, and insights from across our ever-evolving community of oceanographic experts, faculty, researchers, students and alums.
In the cover story, we take a deep dive into the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. A little more than a year in, ocean and coastal science leaders are just beginning to tap the potential of this global push to achieve, as the mission states: “the science we need for the ocean we want.”
June marks the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season. And Rhode Island turns to GSO professor Isaac Ginis who, with a team of experts and graduate students, is generating a high-resolution model to forecast the impact of hurricanes. On land or at sea, the work of his team informs local, state and national preparedness, and Rhode Island’s emergency responders will have real-time access to actionable reports on hazards like coastal and inland flooding thanks to the team’s efforts.
Students at GSO seek exposure to the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship across all disciplines and are pursuing careers beyond academia. To that end, I’m excited to share the story of a new course, Hacking4Oceans. Developed in tandem with the URI College of Business and ignited with a phone call from a Google Executive, “H4O” uses a hack-a-thon format to identify local and global scientific and technological challenges that students then tackle with URI and outside mentors. Students take on complex ocean challenges and create opportunities for businesses by identifying causes, inventing solutions, and adapting new technologies to the needs of private, federal, non-profit and other interested partners.
All of these stories reflect the commitment of our world-class faculty, students, staff and alums to making critical contributions that have local and global implications. Our graduates are part of a well-trained, interdisciplinary, climate-literate workforce that understands the importance of communication, education and public engagement. GSO continues to expand our knowledge of the sea, engage and inspire the next generation of scientists and ocean stewards, and develop innovative solutions to global challenges. As a campus, we continue to strive to diversify science and engineering, and lead and impact a 21st century, global aquatic economy.
As always, thank you for the support you give this school. You are enriching the experience of our students, strengthening our capacity for science and research, and helping us understand and protect our home planet.
Best wishes,
Dean Paula Bontempi, Ph.D. ’01